Jackson Turns Up the Squeak

As the Lakers practiced in their gym Wednesday, Derek Fisher was in the weight room, pushing his rehabilitation through another day in hopes of rejoining the team in February.

It’s pretty ordinary stuff for Fisher, whose condition, a fractured foot, often leaves him a room away.

There was something different, though, coming from the other side of the glass. Fisher recognized the sound immediately--expensive sneakers on hardwood.

“Today,” Fisher said, “I heard a lot of shoes squeaking. Not that we don’t always work, but I could tell they were really getting after it today.”

Coach Phil Jackson chose Wednesday to heighten his intensity, and therefore, he hopes, the team’s. It is not a course he takes lightly, one he often saves for the playoffs, but Jackson had seen one too many bad losses. The latest, to the Clippers on Sunday night, was enough to convince him change was required.

“I just changed the stature I have as nice-guy coach today,” Jackson said. “I worked a little differently, like I did last year, where it was, ‘OK, you guys don’t get the respect of being champions. I’m going to sit on you like I did last year all the time. You have to pay the dues. You don’t play right, the same thing will happen that we did last year.’

“I brought them into detention period about a month ago, but they started playing pretty good. Now it’s time to do some discipline things. We weren’t disciplined in the game on Sunday.”

Asked if he had expected to assume such a hard-line stance this early, Jackson said, “Not yet. You can do that in the playoffs. You can do it in the course of the season. They’re not disciplined enough themselves, so they have to be disciplined a little bit more.”

The response, Jackson said, was so-so.

“I think that self-discipline is real important,” he said. “That’s why a lot of these guys are here, because they discipline themselves well. Some got away from that. It might have been the way I started the season out, there wasn’t much discipline, we were a little bit looser because we had a little more respect for each other because we won. Now it’s time to turn it up a little bit.”

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Fisher is scheduled to undergo a critical bone scan today. If he is cleared, he could begin running drills. . . . Ron Harper returned to the club after tending to personal business. . . . Isaiah Rider, who suffered a slight ankle sprain Tuesday, practiced Wednesday.